White Fungus on my Tomato Stem

White Fungus on my Tomato Stem

Mon Aug 17, 2009 11:02 pm

I have four different tomato varieties in my garden -- all of which were producing just fine for two months but them simultaneously came down with this white fungus on the stem that seems to turn the leaves prematurely rusty with yellow and black spots. I fear the plants are dying, and this will be my last harvest before I have to replant. If there's anyone out there who can diagnose this for me and offer a remedy, I'd sincerely appreciate it. I've included pictures at the web link below.

BTW -- I fear that the cause might be a hanging heirloom tomato plant I have above my floor planters that has been draining down from the soil up above. You can see pictures of my garden, the hanging (now stemless) heirloom plant, the white stem fungus and leaf damage at the link below.

fungus on tomatoes

Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:01 am

Since you didn't get a specific response, I thought I'd go ahead and give a generic one. I don't know what kind of fungus you have, but it does look like some kind of fungal disease. Pretty much most fungus problems seem to respond to the same treatments.

Two most commonly recommended are a milk spray or a baking soda spray.

For the milk spray, what I've been doing is putting a tablespoon or so of yoghurt with active cultures into a cup of milk and letting it stand for a few hours at room temp to make sure there's active lactobacillus. Then dilute it with 1-2 cups of water and spray, being sure to get the tops and undersides of all leaves.

spray as above. You can use one or the other, not both at the same time, they'd tend to cancel each other out. But you could do one and then if it didn't seem to be getting good results follow with the other a few days later.